I'm really taken with this idea of pocket urban gardens and growing your own stuff. Not just for the economics of it, or the reclamation of abandoned land, but for the joy of doing something I've never properly done.

We had a garden when I was a kid, mostly grass, with a roughly laid flagstone foot path bisecting it. I made a few lukewarm attempts to grow the occasional carrot or solitary onion. Now I'm in the mood to really give it a go.

Need some land though. Living in a mid-level flat (no balcony) reduces the opportunity to growing anything edible to mustard and cress by the window sill and we have a team of very acrobatic squirrels round here to boot. They'll view that as an easy challenge. I know those critters; I watch them most mornings swing through the neighbouring tree.